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Saturday, 30 July 2016

Anthrax outbreak in Siberia due to extreme heat

40
now hospitalised after anthrax outbreak in Yamal, more than half are
childrenRussian
army biological protection troops called in amid warnings 'utmost
care' needed to stop deadly infection spreading.

30
July 2016

First
anthrax outbreak since 1941. Picture: Vesti Yamal

Up
to 1,200 deer have been lost in the Yamalsky district in
Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, as urgent action is underway to
inoculate 'at risk' nomads including children. A total of nine have
been hospitalised, including four children, with two of those in
intensive care suspected of suffering from dangerous anthrax.

It
is the first outbreak of deadly infection anthrax in 75 years, and a
strict quarantine regime was put in place by governor Dmitry
Kobylkin, including mass evacuation of herders most at risk, and
their families.

Initially
it was thought a heat wave in the tundra region, which straddles the
Arctic Circle, was responsible for sudden reindeer deaths.

Now
it is feared anthrax has played a major part in the deaths.

People
evacuated from the area. Pictures: Vesti Yamal

Deep
concern focuses on nomadic herders and their families in the
Tarko-Sale

Faktoria camp, above the Arctic Circle and close to the
Yaro To lake, some 340

Tarko Sale,
administrative centre of the Purovski District in Yamal-Nenets

Autonomous Okrug. The proper location and latest news about this can
be found

here for example:

I
have myself moved together with private herders around the Yaro To
lake. The

location is an important passway for many reindeer nomads,
used in all seasons:

The nomads with the furthest longest migration
routes use it in early May, just

before calving time, moving up North
in spring towards their summer pastures. The second "wave"
of herders use this location as a summer site, where they group with
several households uniting many small herds into a big one for
withstanding

mosquito harrassment. People stay close to the Yaro To
lake for fishing there in

summer. In autumn the site is again used as
a passway for herders returning from

their summer pastures south
heading towards the slaughtering sites in the south of

the Yamal
Peninsula. In winter, some private herders use the site and get
supplies

from the trading post in Tarko Sale.

This
shows that the place is very intensively used. Due to the high
mobility of

herders using this site, utmost care has to be taken for
preventing of anthrax being

Siberian
Heat Wave Thaws Dead Reindeer, Unleashes Anthrax Outbreak

Unusually
high temperatures in a northern region of Russia thawed the carcass
of a reindeer, which has led to an outbreak of anthrax in the
Yamalo-Nenets region Western Siberia.

“Considering
the viability of the infectious agent of anthrax - 100 years or more
- and its resistance to the change of temperatures professionals
assume that animals looking for food came across the site of an
animal that died of anthrax and then infected each other,” the
regional governor’s office said in a statement to the Siberian
Times.

More
than a dozen people, including children, have been hospitalized and
63 people have been potentially affected by the disease, which has
already killed more than 1,000 reindeer.

"This
part of northwest Russia has seen an extended spell of warm
temperatures spanning over two weeks,” said weather.com senior
meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.

Pangody,
in the heart of the Yamalo-Nenets region, had high temperatures of at
least 82 degrees Fahrenheit 18 straight days from July 6-23, peaking
at 92.7 on July 23.

The
governor’s office told the Times that some of the deaths may be due
to heatstroke as “the animals are unaccustomed to such high
temperatures.”

“We
have taken all measures to isolate the area,” regional Governor
Dmitry Kolybin told the Associated Press. "Now the most
important thing is the safety and health of our fellow countrymen —
the reindeer herders and specialists involved in the quarantine."

A
mass vaccination of reindeer is currently underway in the region, but
it may be too late, Vladimir Bogdanov, a biology professor with the
Russian Academy of Sciences, told NBC News via the RBC news website.

The
appearance of the disease is the first fatal anthrax outbreak
reported in Russia for 75 years.

Yamal
authorities stopped vaccinating reindeer 10 years ago, NBC reports,
because there had been no outbreaks for more than half-a-century - a
mistake, Bogdanov said.

Measures
are now underway for the disposal of the dead animals, which are
strewn over more than 3 miles, Vyacheslav Khritin, head of Salekhard
Vet Centre, told the Siberian Times.

Most
of the reindeer in the area are raised as a food source, and the meat
is exported to Germany, Sweden and Finland. A spokesman for the
governor’s offices told the Times that safety measures have been
tightened across the entire region.

“There
is no single chance that infected venison will make it to slaughter
complex: all of them, each and very patch is thoroughly checked in
line with the highest standards,” the spokesman said. “We're
interested in exporting high-quality venison just like it has always
been.”This was reported several days ago on Russian television